Self-Analysis

<p><em>Self-Analysis</em> is a fascinating reprise on the mode of disciplined self-inquiry that gave rise to psychoanalysis. From Freud's pioneering self-analytic efforts onward self-analysis has been central to psychoanalytic training and psychoanalytic practice. Yet only in recent years have analysts turned their attention to this wellspring of Freud's creation.</p><p>The contributors to <em>Self-Analysis</em> represent diverse theoretical perspectives but they share a common appreciation of the importance of self-analysis to the analytic endeavor. Their papers encompass systematic inquiries into the capacity for self-analysis examples of self-analysis as an aspect of clinical work and personal reflections on the role of self-analysis in professional growth. Among the questions explored: What do we mean by self-analysis? To what extent and under what conditions is self-analysis possible? How does it differ from ordinary introspection? What are the developmental antecedents of the capacity for self-analysis? What is the role of the other in self-analysis? What are the relationships among self-analysis writing and creativity? </p><p>As Barron observes the contributors to the book grapple with the formidable ambiguities of self-analysis without either idealizing or devaluing its potential. What emerges from their effort is not only an illuminating window into the psychoanalyst's subjectivity as a fact of clinical life but a far-reaching exemplification of the ways in which self-understanding is always a constitutive part of our understanding of others. </p>